Gray Ghost : the life of Col. John Singleton Mosby / James A. Ramage.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Ramage, James A.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Mosby, John Singleton, 1833-1916.

Mosby, John Singleton.

United States--History--Civil War, 1861-1865--Underground movements.

United States.

History.

War--Underground movements.

Guerrillas--Confederate States of America--Biography.

Guerrillas.

Soldiers--Confederate States of America--Biography.

Soldiers.

Diplomats--United States--Biography.

Diplomats.

Genre:

Biographies.

Physical Description:

428 pages, 24 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations, maps ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Lexington : University Press of Kentucky, [1999]

Summary:

Confederate John Singleton Mosby forged his reputation on the most exciting of military activities -- the overnight raid. Mosby possessed a genius for guerrilla and psychological warfare, taking control of the dark to make himself the "Gray Ghost" of Union nightmares.

For more than twenty-seven months Mosby led daring raids behind Union pickets and created false alarms up and down the Potomac. Although he never commanded more than four hundred men, his forces were regularly overestimated, once by a factor of forty. Union officials dispatched more than seventy search and destroy missions against him, but he retained the tactical advantage until Lee's surrender at Appomattox ended the war.

Mosby's dynamic personality, forged in childhood, was the foundation for his success as a guerrilla chief, but it was also his greatest weakness. Attempting to repeat patterns of heroic conflict after the war, he threw away his status as a leading southern hero and sacrificed a lucrative law practice to support the Republican party and U.S. Grant's campaign for the presidency.

Forced into exile from his native Virginia, Mosby again charged into controversy. During his service as U.S. consul in Hong Kong, he worked to reform the office and single-handedly exposed the corruption of his predecessors. When his bosses in the State Department balked, Mosby sent information directly to President Hayes and, eventually, exposed the wrong-doing to the Washington Post.

In retirement, Mosby continued in his well-worn role of underdog by authoring the first defense of Jeb Stuart's actions at Gettysburg, exposing Lee's role in the debacle.

Contents:

1 Mosby's Weapon of Fear 1

2 The Weakling and the Bullies 11

3 "Virginia is my mother." 28

4 Scouting behind Enemy Lines 36

5 Capturing a Yankee General in Bed 58

6 Miskel's Farm 77

7 Featherbed Guerrillas 96

8 Unguarded Sutler Wagons 105

9 Masquerading as the Enemy 120

10 Seddon's Partisans 131

11 Mosby's Clones in the Valley 147

12 Th. Night Belonged to Mosby 165

13 Blue Hen's Chickens and Custer's Wolverines 184

14 The Lottery 201

15 Sheridan's Mosby Hunt 216

16 Sheridan's Burning Raid 228

17 Apache Ambuscades, Stockades, and Prisons 243

18 "All that the proud can feel of pain" 262

19 Grant's Partisan in Virginia 271

20 Hayes's Reformer in Hong Kong 285

21 Stuart and Gettysburg 300

22 Roosevelt's Land Agent in the Sand Hills 318

23 The Gray Ghost of Television and Film 333.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [349]-400) and index.

ISBN:

0813121353

OCLC:

40762598